Corban Yaxley (Ninclow)
Corban Yaxley is one of the more prominent Death Eaters, serving as one of the Dark Lord's spies in the Ministry of Magic, having long since established an extensive network of well-connected wizards both inside and outside of the Ministry of Magic and is responsible for passing valuable information to the Dark Forces. Biography Early life Born into an ancient wizarding family of impeccable lineage in the Scottish Highlands during the early twentieth century, Corban grew up in a spacious and luxurious house perched atop a hill overlooking the picturesque little village of Hogsmeade, where he acquired his distinctive accent. In his youth, although raised in an atmosphere of bitterness that the Ministry of Magic had decided, against the wishes of his grandfather, to put full control of Gringotts back in goblin hands against the wishes of his grandfather and returned Gringotts Wizarding Bank only a little more than half a century earlier, the not inconsiderable wealth at their disposal ensured the Yaxley family considerable (and locally much resented) influence in their little community, whose notorious anti-Muggle sentiments harked back to family history and characterised most of their family's actions over the centuries. Prudently educated on how wizardkind had been driven into hiding by the vicious, wandless men who had wanted to burn them at the stake, how their own family had fled to the security of the only all-wizarding settlement in Great Britain during this dark period in magical history and how they subsequently opted to remain in order to live beyond the reach of Muggles and in a manner where they were free to use their magic without fear of prosecution. As such, Corban too came to share their bigotry and prejudice where non-wizards were concerned. Forever lamenting about what a dangerously egalitarian institution that the British Ministry of Magic had become and finds their continued liaison with the Muggle Prime Minister to be deplorable, he nevertheless grew up privy to the secret knowledge that both of his parents were actually attracted to the cut and thrust of politics, but had stuck to their allotted seats at the Consortium of Goblinary Finance & Red-Nosed Wizard Investors because it had allowed them the opportunity to underhandedly annex the property of fellow residents to the point where they owned almost half the land on which Hogsmeade lay. Although the ancient laws set down by the Wizards' Council in order to preserve what had served as a safehaven and a sanctuary for witches and wizards fleeing prosecution by Muggles effectively prevented them from doing any major changes, the fact that many residents and shop owners had to pay rent to the Yaxleys in order to be allowed to go about their business as usual, and more importantly, undisturbed, meant that Corban Yaxley in his childhood led a life that was far more entitled than most of their fellow local witches and wizards generally felt he had the right to have. Courteous and polite to most people and seldom flaunting his pure-blood beliefs like his parents, it was generally felt by the majority of the Hogsmeade residents that he was a thoroughly unpleasant child, owed in no small part to the fact that whenever he smiled, it invariably never extended to his eyes, which they found to be slightly unnerving. Once when he was still fairly young, Corban's father had forgotten to refill their stock of floo-powder, leading to an humiliating ride with the Hogwarts Express from Hogsmeade to King's Cross Station in London during which he and his father had to endure the curious looks of schoolboys and girls on their way home for Christmas as they entered and exited their compartment. Shortly after this, Corban fell grievously ill and proceeded to spend several months at the "Magical Bugs" section of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, having contracted a severe case of Spattergroit, a highly contagious aliment caused by an infectious fungus. Although Corban recovered, a complication with his vocal cords after he lost the ability to speak after it reached the uvula left him with a permanently hoarse, rasping-sounding voice, (which played no small part in Corban's later vocal support of the rather controversial theory that Muggles originated from mushrooms proposed by Hambledon Quince). As a young lad, his mother would often read to him from the family's copy of The Tales of Beedle The Bard, with his favorite story being about a hopping cauldron protecting an innocent wizard from a mob of Muggles and swallows them whole, only to burp them up whole, though slightly mangled after the wizard gains the promise of the remaining villagers that they will not disturb his efforts to practise magic. They would also often mention how proud they were (and indeed, how proud he should be) for being they were listed as one of the 'Sacred Twenty Eight' truly pure-blood families in the anonymously published Pure-Blood Directory in the 1930s School years When the letter of admittance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived on Corban’s eleventh birthday, his father promptly wrote to the Headmaster of the day, declining the offer. In his letter, it was strongly implied that he felt Professor Dippet was lacking the core essential leadership abilities that allowed some of his predecessors, such as Professors Phineas Nigellus Black and Elizabeth Burke, to effectively uphold the standards of the school despite the fact that Salazar Slytherin ultimately failed to fulfill his plans for the purity of wizardkind, a feat at which he proved himself incapable of as evidenced by how he employed the Muggle-loving Albus Dumbledore. Instead, they sent Corban abroad to an ancient hall of learning in which Muggle-borns was not permitted to enter and which took, as his parents saw it, a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. And so it was, that Corban Yaxley journeyed north to receive his formal instruction. His arrival there was not the triumph that he and his parents had been hoping for, however: Repeatedly refused by the Headmaster of the day to use the then recently published Book of Spells by Miranda Goshawk, who felt that no witch, regardless of skill, could possibly hope to produce something academically useful within a year of leaving school. Forbidding any further attempts to "force through other published works from his home country" into the curriculum of his professors, Corban was pretty much left to struggle with the rather old-fashioned textbooks listed on his supply list offering nothing but complicated instructions and abstruse concepts he found great difficulty in understanding. And it did not get any easier when the school, much to the chagrin of his parents, sent a letter detailing how their son at Durmstrang was almost failing Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology. This is not to say that young Yaxley had no talent, but strength-obsessed and dark-flavoured school cultures like the one he had become part of was largely unforgiving of underdogs and had generally little patience with failures. Feeling inadequate under the pressure of his elders and wishing to prove himself, it was natural, perhaps, under such conditions that he took to Dark magic like vampires to blood, which had always been presented to him as a powerful and mysterious tool for a strong-willed young wizard to use to achieve their own ends, which went more or less hand in hand with the latent desire for recognition and greatness he had came to develop over the years. As such, while he did not excel in all of his studies, he soon enjoyed a particularly dark and fearsome reputation in the spheres of duelling and malicious spell-casting that grew increasingly more pronounced with each passing year. He achieved even greater notoriety during the practical parts of his final examinations by graduating on top of his class, having dispassionately and flawlessly demonstrating Dark Magic of the most advanced kind and of a standard that alarmed even the teachers. An advocate for violence and unafraid to use it himself, Corban Yaxley, in spite of his failing to meet all of the expectations that his harshly demanding parents had for him, had become an accomplished duelist, defeating his own teacher in the subject and thus got top marks. Opening a business Upon Keenly interested in contemporary history and the unique properties of magical artefacts, and the powerful mystique of magical artefacts First Wizarding War Coming soon. Between the wars Coming soon. Second Wizarding War Coming soon Personality and traits Coming soon. Magical abilities and skills Coming soon. Category:Males Category:Slytherins